Getting kidnapped on her way to buy ice cream was the least of Avangeline Lewis’s problems. I mean, she’s got her hands full trying to cope with a mental, deranged kidnapper who unfortunately happened to be her first love from college. That’s one hand. On the other hand, she’s got to help the kidnappers find their way to her summer beach house…..without getting killed.
And yes, they were being hunted down by some other delusional group of people.
But when Ava, Derek and his goons, find Erin and Cassidy abused and dead in their supposedly ‘safe house’, Ava realizes that what she got dragged into was no child’s play. This was serious and if she wanted to help avenge her new friends, she had to be game.
Things go well for the little group….until the news of kidnapping girls get worse and worse. It’s not long before Ava fears the safety of her sister and best friend. And when Ava nearly gets kidnapped herself, that’s when Derek goes crazy and calls up his older brother.
Tyler Talon joins the group, much to everyone’s relief…including Avangeline’s.
But that relief is short lived….when Tyler starts to show interest in her.
Sparks fly, jealousy starts and bullets are fired.
Avangeline quickly learns that nowhere is safe….that danger lurks in every corner.

I caught her and we both went tumbling into the gorgeous
ocean, wetting my pretty yellow sundress.

Laughing, she wrapped her arms around me.

"Oh Ava. This is so much fun! I'm glad you planned this whole
thing for my birthday!" She whispered, her pretty green eyes
twinkling with joy. Grinning, I hugged her back and then helped
her out of the water.

"That's because, you're special!" I said, taking her hand and
then starting a dance with her. Laughing, she danced with me
across the deserted beach.

"Hey! You know what I mean! You're so mean!" Crystal
complained. Taking her hand, we walked back to our little family.
Billy, our uncle and Crystal's manager. The twins, Carter and
Max. And my best friend in the entire world, Nasreen.

They all started laughing when we approached them.

"I thought you didn't want to ruin your dress?" teased
Nasreen. I grinned and then plopped down next to her.

"Of course I didn't. We fell into the ocean."

"Because she's so fat, when she caught me, we both fell
down!" teased Crystal, sitting down next to Billy.

I stuck my tongue out at her and glared at the blazing
sun.

"Hey, I'm off for some ice-cream. You guys want?" I asked,
getting up and stretching. It was so hot that my dress started
drying already.

Max got up.

"I'll come with you." He said, already reaching for his gun.
I rolled my eyes and grimaced at the sight of going to the ice
cream booth with one of Crystal's body guards.

"No, no, no. Big guy, you stay right here. Crystal needs to
be protected." I told him, gently pushing him back down. Max
glared at me and tried to get up. Of course, I just pushed him
back down.

Crystal snorted and looked up at me.

"Right, Ava. I need to be protected from what? The almighty
crabs?" turning to Carter, she reached for a water gun in front
of him and then turned to me again, holding the gun and pointing
it at Carter.

"Because if that's what you're worried about, I
can….like…drown them with this super high technology!" With that,
she started spraying Carter's handsome face with water. Carter
sat up and started to wipe his face.

"Remind me, since when was I considered a crab?" he asked,
looking at Crystal with an amused expression. Crystal grinned,
pointing the water gun in his face.

"Since now." And she sprayed him again. He got up, probably
to attack her. Crystal must've thought the same thing because she
shrieked and darted up and away from him.

Instantly, Carter bounded after her.

Aww. I always thought they'd make a cute couple. It was so
obvious Carter had a thing for Crystal.

"Do you think he'll get it off his chest now?" asked Max,
from next to me in amusement. He was watching his twin run after
Crystal. Laughing, Billy shook his head.

"That guy is crazy. And we all know he won't because…well…he
likes to hide things. Like Max."

Nasreen laughed. "God, Max. Way to go in duplicating your
genes."

Max pulled a face. And then turned to me. "So, are we getting
those ice creams?"

I smiled at him and pushed him down. "There is no
we. There is just me."

Max started to complain when Nasreen got up.

"Don't worry, Maxi-boy. I'll go with her."

I laughed.

"Oh for God's sake you two. I'll be fine. The ice cream booth
is just there." I said. I gently pushed Nasreen down and
grinned. Then I darted off.

It was strange. The beach was full of people, but the stalls
were completely empty. There wasn't anyone around. Just me.
Weird.

When I reached the ice cream booth, I realized that the
man…was sleeping? He had a huge hat placed over his face.
Reaching over, I gently shook him, trying to wake him up.

The hat over his face fell off and I gasped in horror. His
eyes were open and glassy. His mouth was also open and there was
blood seeping out. His face looked like it was punched black and
blue. Glancing at his body, I noticed a red line across the guys
chest.

Gently and carefully, I peeled back his shirt and stifled a
scream. His chest was sliced open and….

A crash from around the corner had my head snapping up and
glancing towards the sound. Pulling away from the dead ice cream
man, I quietly made my way towards the wall. There seemed to be a
conversation going on. Quietly. I listened.

"Where is it, Granger?" growled a deep, gruff voice.

No answer and then the sound of someone punching someone. A
gasp.

"I won't tell you." Another man gasped. He had a soft
voice.

"Oh you won't? Then we'll find your family and cut up your
small children…" whispered another voice, This voice was cold and
pure evil. I shivered.

There was silence and then the sound of ripping. The soft
voice man cried out.

Shocked and recklessly, I made my way around the wall. This
time, I couldn't stifle my scream.

There was a man being sliced in front of my eyes. His eyes
were black and blue, his shirt was torn open and there was a deep
cut on his chest, blood was seeping down and his arm looked
broken.

In front of him stood two men, both holding knives.

All three men glanced at me and I gasped, taking a step
back.

One of the men had a patch over his right eye and a scar
running down his face. The other man was bald and his face was
twisted in a ugly scowl. He had a thick eye brows and was truly
hideous. He made my uncle seem thirty years younger.

I met the eyes of the injured man and then turned and ran
off. Hopefully, those scary men will be after me instead of the
poor guy. And I was right.

There was a scuffle and then a yell.

"No, leave him! We need to catch that girl!" yelled the cold
voice.

I glanced over my shoulder and gasped. The two men were right
behind me. And holy hell, they were fast.

The patch-eye one started to reach towards me and he managed
to grab me. Screaming, I elbowed his face hard enough that he
dropped his hold on me. And off I went, running for my life.

But as I turned the corner, I realized that I had carelessly
lost track of the bald guy. I glanced over my shoulder and saw
the patch -eye guy straightening up and then starting after me
again. I turned to look where I was going and then-thump.

I bumped straight into the bald guy! Gasping, I tried to
retrace my tracks but crashed into the eye patch guy who caught
me and pulled my wrists away from my body.

Too scared to scream, I stared at the bald guy. He didn't
even look at me. He looked at the eye-patch guy and nodded once.
I felt something hard hit my head and then everything was
black.

Oh shit. I was taken captive. No wonder my head hurt. After
calming down a bit, I realized that I was on something that was
moving. A car.

I let out a breath. Oh God. What am I going to do now?

The car suddenly stopped and I heard the sounds of doors being
opened and then closed. Then I heard footsteps on gravely ground
and suddenly, I heard the door closest to me open.

Instantly, I made myself seem unconscious. No need to warn them
that I was awake. I felt myself being roughly picked up the car
and bumped my head against something hard. Irritated and bursting
with pain, I wanted to slap the guy.

Even if I was supposed to be unconscious, I'm still a female.
God, I bet he isn't even married.

The walk to someplace seemed to take forever. And the guy who was
carrying me stank. Had he never heard of deodorant?

Then, I felt a draft of cool air hit my body.

We were probably inside the captive house or killer den or
something like that, which clearly owned an air conditioner.

I heard the sound of a door being banged open and then the man
who was carrying me came to an abrupt stop. And almost dropped
me.

Oh God. Why didn't I bring Max with me? This would never have
happened.

The man who held me cleared his throat.

"It's a woman."

"No, really? I thought it was a pig." Said the new male voice,
sarcastically. I felt myself get defensive.

Was he calling me fat?

"Uh..no….master…I…um…." stammered the man who was carrying me. Oh
it was the gruff voice guy.

Clearly, he was terrified of the new guy. Master? Maybe that's
why.

"Why did you bring her here?" the new guy asked. There was a
pause and then gruff man spoke slowly, as though choosing his
words carefully.

"She saw us trying to get information from the Granger guy."

"Where is he?"

"He escaped because we were chasing this girl."

Oh so he did escape. Good for him. Bad luck for me.

"You didn't think of killing him first?" the new guy asked, voice
cold. Oh my God. These people were murderers! And kidnappers.

Okay, I needed to escape. But how? My whole body was hurt, I
couldn't move.

"We had no time, master. This girl was running to tell the
police." The gruff man said. Now that he mentioned it, I could
have run to the police. I'm such an idiot, I didn't think of
that.

There was a long, long silence.

"Wake her up."

I felt my captive carry me some more and then dropped me…onto
something soft? A couch. Weird.

I felt my wrists being released and then someone threw water at
my face. I gasped and struggled to sit up. I was right. I
couldn't move. I gasped in pain and fell back against the soft
couch, breathing hard.

What the hell? Did these guys beat me black and blue while I was
unconscious?

The blindfold was pulled off rather roughly and then I blinked in
the sudden brightness. I turned my head to the side and spotted
long legs covered with black jeans. I looked up to the face of
the 'master' and froze. He was young, my age or so. About 23 or
so. And I was 21.

He was also extremely attractive with high cheekbones, structured
nose and beautiful brown eyes. And he was shirtless. And he was
so goddamn hot.

But worst of all, I knew him. From my last college. He was the
guy that never noticed me and was the one I gave my heart to.
Even though he didn't know it.

Okay, I really wanted my captive to be ugly but that was clearly
impossible now, seeing as my main captive was Derek Talon.